Ballad of Green Broom (from Five Flower Songs)

These lovely, classic part-songs were written as a 25th wedding anniversary present for Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst of Dartington Hall. Apparently Britten chose the subject matter because they were keen botanists. Whatever the reason for the choice, it was a supremely happy one and brought from Britten a set of pieces which, while in a direct line of descent from the classic part-songs of Elgar, Stanford and Parry, are entirely original. These songs are designed as a set. The mood-scape shows that Britten was keenly aware of the variety needed to satisfy performers and audience between bookends. The unsentimental originality of To Daffodils with its tempo marking of Allegro impetuoso focusing on the speedy demise of the flower which is of course a metaphor for the passing of life; the clever division into four voices for the four months in The Succession of the Four Sweet Months and that beautifully simple device at the end where each month is named and forms a lovely cadence; the bitter-sweet Marsh Flowers to its poem by George Crabbe and the way Britten makes a slightly menacing atmosphere relieved only by the description of gentler plants; the ever-so-slightly sentimental Evening Primrose, the slow movement of the set; and finally Green Broom, a tour-de-force of humour which is crowned, at its heart, by Britten's slightly hysterical altos singing 'Go fetch me the boy'! The gradual accelerando throughout this piece leading to the final flourish makes this a wonderful and exciting finale to a set of part-songs which should be at the heart of any choirs repertoire.